Todays lesson

Last Thursday I was on my way to school. My afternoon class was cancelled and I decided to spend that time playing some badminton. God forbid I actually read ahead once in a while.

As I'm leaving my neighborhood a car pulls up and the driver asks me where I play badminton. He says he's been up until two years ago and is just getting back into it. Even though the guy lives on my street it's still a pretty random encoutner. I tell him I play at York. He asks what I study. I tell him I'm in IT (biggest middle level profession out there right now. Don't know why I set myself up for this kind of competition). Now he looks interested and mentions he runs a web marketing business. He says he'd like to meet and discuss some stuff, and if the fit is right, maybe something could be worked out.

Call me naive, but I've been searching for a job in my field since last September. I've had no replies Since it's getting really close to my graduation date I'm ready to grab anything even remotely related to my field. Understandably I'm pretty happy about this. Not only did I get an interview, I got it through a shared interest. What are the chances of that?

Come Sunday, the day we met, I get to the coffee shop early. I had planned on taking the subway so I'd get there 15 minutes early. My dad happened to get home just as I was leaving so I was able to drive there and was 30 minutes early. I go in, get a table and order a coffee and donut. I take out my debit card but the cashier says they don't have a debit machine. Crap, I think. And what the hell? What kind of eating establishment doesn't have a debit machine?

Suddenly I hear my name. I turn around and it turns out the guy I'm meeting is early too. He offers to pay for my food. I thank him for being generous. The total was $2.11, but etiquette is etiquette.

We sit and make smalltalk. How was my weekend, how was his, whatever. We get down to business and he tells me all about his business. He says he's in internet marketing. Then he brings out this pamphlet with ICommerce written on the front. He opens it and explains that in between the manufacturers and the customers there's a whole bunch of middle men. The reason why things made China for $5 are sold here for $100 is 'cause of these middle men all taking their share. In order to make money you have to become one of these middle men. Then he starts talking about how if I have the right fit I can use the current infrastructure in place to train myself and get into internet marketing.

He pauses here for a bit and I ask him, what is it that he markets? Is it software products, consulting, or something like that? I ask because it says on his card that he's a Business Consultant with Global Web Marketing. I kind of expected something to do with consulting firms on how to run an e-business.

Then he drops the bomb. "Health products", he says. I'm confused. Perhaps there's a possibility that I'm to moderate an online store or make one or something. "It's not door to door. You don't sell door to door.", he assures me. I'm confused again. What is a company that seemingly is all about consulting selling health products?

He goes back to the pamphlet and starts going through it. At this point I'm approaching everything with a filter. A shittalking filter that sieves out the crap from the grains of truth. He points out things such as the affiliates they're associated with. Famous businesses that many people know, such as Royal Bank (May have been too smeared in shit to be discernable. Besides, he only showed me that list for less than a second. Guess he didn't want me looking too close).

Then he starts saying that this business is meant to be a supplement to my income. He makes damn clear that he's not saying I should quit my current part time job. In fact, I can work at this business for 10-15 hours a week and still be able to make an extra $500 in about a months time.

At this point he switched gears and started talking about growth in ecommerce in countries like China and India. He claims that this type of buisiness marketing is the fastest growing in the past 5 years. This is a trend I closely follow. While it's techinically true, since ecommerce has only been around since computers were able to handle it, it's also been hampered by user distrust. Not enough people trust the technology to make it mainstream. But it's getting there.

He asks me where I think I am on a scale that measures initiative. I give bullshit for bullshit. Then he asks me where I think I am on the independant thought scale. Same answer.

So, I basically sat with this guy for half an hour and got nothing out of it except for a penciled-in meeting for the comping Tuesday.

When I get home I send him an email thanking him for his time and asking if he had a website I could look at. There was no such information on his business card and nothing could be found by Google in my attempts to prepare for this meeting.

I'm loking through this site and it all looks pretty legit. There's a products section that has exactly what he told me earlier. There's an online store integrated in with the products page. Probably that infrastructure he was talking about before. Then I see a link called "Success Stories". Curiosity piqued, I read some. They all involve highly educated people, some with Masters or phD's, extolling the benefits of this type of business and something called Britt Worldwide. This is the first time I've heard of this organization. I Google them and came up with this. I needed an IBO (Independant Business Operator) number and a password to access it, but it's clear that it's BWW pulling the strings in this business.

This would be the end of the story if it were not for my keen eye (I've been told to harness this power for good, but I find it more personally benefitting to use it to ogle girls. I can even take it out and look around corners.). Britt looked familiar. Too familiar. Going back to the site the guy gave me, I looked through the Success Stories again. Sure enough Britt was in the first two entries. One old guy in his late 60's and another, presumabely his son. His son's success story said that once he had attained Diamond he was able to live a carefree lifestyle. Bullshit filter interprets that as Grade A with a fishy odour to it.

Googling the name found this. Bill Britt, the first success story in the website, the apparant owner of Britt Worldwide, and the President of Quixtar is the motherfucking President of Amway! The same Amway that is famous for being the biggest pyramid scheme ever. They even had the same classification system. Diamonds were their biggest sellers. But not of Amway/Quixtar products; of Amway/Quixtar training/motivational materials. The only way to succeed in this 'business' is to get as many desperate, gullible people as you can and convince them they need you and your tapes.

After finding all this out I immediately emailed him and told him I decided this wasn't the 'right fit' for me and cancelled our next meeting. I feel a little better about having no job prospects for the future. Just a little.